THECANICAL CRARY H72.698 770 CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE, C. F. CLAY, MANAGER. London: FETTER LANE, E.C. Glasgow: 50, WELLINGTON STREET. Leipzig: F. A. BROCKHAUS. New York: G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS. Bombay and Calcutta: MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD. T NOTE. HE text of Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners here adopted is that of the sixth edition published in 1688, the year of Bunyan's death. Till 1883 this was the earliest we possessed but in that year a copy of the first edition of 1666 was acquired for the Library of the British Museum. On comparison it was seen at once that by the time of the sixth edition the work had been greatly enlarged by its author, receiving additions of no fewer than fifty or sixty paragraphs. Of the second edition no copy is known; and all the knowledge we possess of the third edition of 1679 is derived from an item in the Trinity Term Catalogue of Stationers' Hall of that year, recently published by Mr Arber. It would appear that the additions referred to had by this time been made, as this further issue is described as "The Third Edition corrected and much enlarged." Probably in consequence of the expiration of the censorship of the Press in 1679 two other editions followed in quick succession, for that of 1680 is described as the fifth. Of the fourth edition no NOTE existing copy is known. A unique copy of the fifth edition was included in the Collection of the late W. G. Thorpe, Esq., of the Middle Temple, but in 1904 it was sold and cannot now be traced. The title-page of the first edition is reproduced on p. viii : The supplement to Grace Abounding, entitled A Relation of the Imprisonment was not published during Bunyan's lifetime, nor indeed, as the title indicates, till 1765, remaining till that year in the possession of his family. It was ultimately sold to James Buckland, the publisher in Paternoster Row, for five guineas, by Hannah Bunyan, Bunyan's great granddaughter, who died at Bedford February 15th, 1770, aged seventy-six. It is an eminently characteristic production of Bunyan's pen. The text of The Pilgrim's Progress adopted for Part I is that of the eleventh edition of 1688, the one which received Bunyan's latest emendations. Only two copies of this edition are known: the one in the British Museum, which is defective to the extent of having no fewer than nineteen leaves missing; and the other, a perfect copy, and therefore unique, which has furnished the text of the present edition. It has been kindly lent by its owner, an American gentleman, who not only possesses an unrivalled collection of Bunyan first editions, but also the original warrant for Bunyan's committal to the town gaol on Bedford Bridge in 1676, during which second imprisonment of six months he wrote his Pilgrim Dream, NOTE The text selected for Part II, the story of Christiana and her children, is that of the second edition, published in 1687, the one which received the author's latest additions and emendations. Some of Bunyan's most characteristic touches are to be found in the marginal notes he appended to the text. In Part II there are no fewer than 384 of these, in addition to Scripture references, and of these 384 as many as 148 were added for the first time to this second edition of 1687. The present work has been printed from a perfect and rare copy of this edition kindly lent for the purpose by Eliot Pye-Smith Reed, Esq., of Earlsmead, Hampstead Heath, son of the late Sir Charles Reed, a well-known expert in everything relating to Bunyan. 15 June, 1907. J. B. TO THE CHIEF OF SINNERS: OR, A Brief and Faithful Relation of the exceeding Mercy of God in Christ to His poor Servant, JOHN BUNYAN; Wherein is particularly showed the manner of his conversion, his sight and trouble for sin, his dreadful temptations, also how he despaired of God's mercy, and how the Lord at length through Christ did deliver him from all the guilt and terror that lay upon him. Whereunto is added a brief relation of his call to the work of the ministry, of his temptations therein, as also what he hath met with in prison. All which was written by his own hand there, and now published for the support of the weak and tempted people of God. 'Come and bear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul.'--Psal. lxvi. 16. London Printed by George Larkin, 1666. |